Field of the Invention
This invention relates to automatically operated passenger doors on transit vehicles, such as, buses and trains. More specifically, it relates to passenger communication lighting that informs a passenger standing before or passing through the doors of the status of the automatic control of the doors.
Description of Related Art
It is well-known that a vast majority of urban transit vehicles utilize a plurality of side mounted powered door systems for passenger ingress and egress. In some applications, such as underground subways, where the transit vehicles operate in a multiple vehicle configuration and further operate in a climatically controlled environment, and where the passenger generally pays first to gain access to the transit vehicle, all side door systems in every transit vehicle are being operated at every station.
In other applications, especially where transit vehicles operate above ground, the passenger may pay only upon entering the vehicle through only one side door located next to a vehicle operator while the other side doors are used predominantly for passenger egress. In such applications, it is desirable to maintain a consistent interior climatic environment of the transit vehicles for passenger comfort and minimize the effect of external environmental factors. Selectively operating side door systems decrease component wear and increase durability and reliability of such side door systems. Therefore, in such applications, it is common for a vehicle operator to selectively open certain side doors while placing other side doors in a condition enabling the passenger to open such side doors by contacting a switch device mounted either directly on the side door or in its vicinity.
The well-known switch devices used in such applications are touch bars. A touch bar, comprising a tubular member terminated by upper and lower housings at each end, enables a small range of lateral movement in any direction. Either one or both end housings contain a switch of the electromechanical nature that is activated upon movement of the tubular member caused by the passenger contact. The resulting electrical signal is used by the door drive and door controller to open the door which then enables passenger egress. Other switch devices are known that simply respond to a passengers contact with the touch bar as, for example, the vTouch (tm) electronic touch bar sold by the assignee of this application and having no moving parts.
It would be desirable if the passenger at a door was aware of the status of the door, for example, whether the operator has authorized the opening of the door and/or the passenger's request has been received. Still further, it is desirable that passengers be apprised when the door is about to open or close or is opening or closing or resting in the open or closed position.